.weekly blog.

..round & round we go, we are back to the end of the year reflection, self reflecting on goals and future plans make me anxious & tired & sickly, I get irritated easily, everything frustrates me and people say to blame the weather but I am so done with this merry go round way of life where I end up at the same place over and over again.

I have been into podcasts lately at work while doing mindless data stuff, the podcasts I mostly listen to are mainly about true crime, cults, conspiracy and occasional interviews. Here are the 3 I am listening:

Unobscured – Currently into this podcast about the Salem witch trials, it goes into a lot of details about what happened during those years. I won’t go into much details but if you are bored or are interested in it, give this a listen. Its now on episode 6 and its getting more intriguing.

Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know– From how stuff works, this podcast delve into anything that you might be interested in modern times, from cult, UFOs to the voter fraud. It is informative with factual opinions, I got into it while looking up Elisa Lam incident, the girl who was found dead in the water tank while travelling solo across California. It goes on how it could have happened, who was involved and the CCTV footage found. You might be able to gain more insights on what happened and come to your own conclusions if you can.

The Generation Why – One of the podcast by Wondery, if you are into true crime then this is the one you’ll need to get into. It started in 2012 so there are loads to catch up to, they go into details of the crime, how it unfolded and any conspiracies and mysteries behind it.

I headed out to see the latest Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Victoria Miro. I was looking forward to it ever since they announced it and had grab the free tickets as soon as I could. This is all sold out so I was lucky and glad to get it.

I have been intrigued by Yayoi Kusama work ever since her exhibition at Tate modern in 2012. Her infinity rooms are mind boggling and dream like. The obsessive use of dots and colours are a sight to behold. Her works of art always teach me to not forget my childhood inspiration and to live colourfully.

I have always worked in retail, firstly as a sales assistant and now, I work as an E-commerce Executive or it can be an Online Production Coordinator or Web Production Assistant whatever you call it, they all mean the same thing but most people seem to have hardly heard of it. So what does it entail? To simplify, I work behind the scene to upload products you see on an online shop so this encompasses checking product data, uploading it, managing how it looks online, managing the content journey while liaising with different departments mainly with Buying and Merchandising and Marketing.

Everyday can be different depending on your sales performance so you have to be on your toes, there can be promotion going on any day or you can be working on testing the site. You would need to be good at excel as you’ll be dealing with loads of product data and changes but excel stuff, you can learn as you go. On technical aspect, different websites are run on different platform – platform are the background system that make the website work, major platforms nowadays are Magento, Salesforce, Hybris to name a few. They could be simple to use and easy to learn to some of them a slight complicated to get your head around. Its good to know technical details like user journey on the site, a little HTML goes a long way but whats most desirable is to have passion for it and you can go a long way. The most fun is launching something every season and seeing if the products do well or not. In terms of education background, I have a degree in IT but I’ve known a lot of people from different educational background in this field and its great to get different aspect. If you are interested in going to a ecommerce career, you can connect with me in LinkedIn here.

This was recommended to me by my friend, Mika and its a guide to be fully present, tuning out the past and present and being at inner peace with yourself. The process of being fully present is an ongoing learning experience as our brain is wired nowadays to think ahead or self reflect on the past. I am an over thinker by nature and tuning out those unnecessary thoughts are hard but I try to get about 30 minutes everyday to be fully present. There are tips in the book on how to do it, how to be fully present in body and mind and so far my practice sometimes can be fulfilling and other times the mind takes over and it wanders to day dreaming but as the book states, you need to control the mind and not the other way round and this takes time. I can’t say it has fully transformed my life as some reviews on this book have said but when you realise that your time is limited, being present and enjoying things as it comes by is the most fulfilling way to live. Give the book a read if you are feeling incomplete, coz right now at this very moment, everybody out there can feel complete and at peace.

I read this after the Power of Now and they both complement each other as this book generally talks about how to be happy and being present is one of them. The book is a conversation between Howard and His Holiness, and they discuss variety of topics ranging from the source of happiness, facing suffering and overcoming obstacles. The lesson I learned from this book was the patience and tolerance we need to generate with other beings as well as with yourself. Self love is important so that you can convey it to others. It does go on to more of a Buddhism way of life but I think people can put that into their own spiritual practice whether you are religious or not.

Let me know if you have read any of above books or if you have any to recommend, I currently am looking for a Tao book but have yet to get it.